vestige

[ ves-tij ]

noun

1. a mark, trace, or visible evidence of something that is no longer present or in existence:

   A few columns were the last vestiges of a Greek temple.

   Synonyms: token

2. a surviving evidence or remainder of some condition, practice, etc.:

   These superstitions are vestiges of an ancient religion.

3. a very slight trace or amount of something:

   Not a vestige remains of the former elegance of the house.

   Synonyms: suggestion, hint

4. Biology. a degenerate or imperfectly developed organ or structure that has little or no utility, but that in an earlier stage of the individual or in preceding evolutionary forms of the organism performed a useful function.
5. Archaic. a footprint; track.

vestige

/ ˈvɛstɪdʒ /

noun

1. a small trace, mark, or amount; hint

   a vestige of truth

   no vestige of the meal

2. biology an organ or part of an organism that is a small nonfunctioning remnant of a functional organ in an ancestor

Word History and Origins

Origin of vestige¹

First recorded in 1535–45; from Middle French, from Latin vestīgium “footprint”

Word History and Origins

Origin of vestige¹

C17: via French from Latin vestīgium track

Synonym Study

See trace ¹.

Example Sentences

But sponsors stretched the English language when they pitched it as ending the last vestiges of “slavery.”

From Los Angeles Times

Advocates for Proposition 6 see forced labor in prisons as a vestige of slavery, and used the word in their campaign messages.

From Los Angeles Times

However, after declaring America's independence from England, Thomas Jefferson and other founders believed their legislative and political actions had already eliminated the remaining vestiges of European feudalism.

From Salon

Californians are expected to shed the last vestiges of Proposition 8, the 2008 voter-approved measure that banned same-sex marriage and was later declared unconstitutional.

From Los Angeles Times

Inmates are sentenced to time behind bars, not forced labor, a vestige of chain gangs and slavery.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• glimmer
• relic
• remnant
• residue